Saturday, December 15, 2012

Turkey Day 2 - Revenge of the Turks

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
This week has been pretty busy & fun… so I’ll catch you up a bit on it. Last week, I was introduced to a wonderful little made-for-TV Lifetime movie called “The Christmas Counselor” (thanks Soup) starring David Hasselhoff as the ultimate Christmas party planner… and yes, The Hoff was creepy & charismatic… and I highly recommend that you watch it with your friends. Or better yet, do what I did… and fast forward to the parts with the Hoff while watching it with your friends & enjoying a few beverages. ‘Twas awesome for the holidays…
Saturday, Dizzy prepared a little Orphan’s Thanksgiving for some of her friends… and the food was magnificent. That girl can cook. She may make a lucky bastard a very happy fat man someday. We ate for what seemed like hours… behold...

 
Then we watched a little nugget from our childhoods by the name of “Super Mario Bros” starring Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo & Dennis Hopper. Now… if you’ve never seen this movie, you might be kinda lucky. However, it’s not really any more ridiculous than the concept of the video game of which it’s based, just attempted to be made into a movie. Dialogue: Ridiculous. Plot: Preposterous. Visual effects: Early 90’s, so… do you remember the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies? That kind of stuff. It was interesting to mock as most childhood movies can be… but yeah, definitely don’t watch it alone. You’ll turn it off about ten minutes in, at most. Dennis Hopper is in blonde cornrows. Need I really say more? By the way, I'm pretty sure the Washington Post comment on the movie poster "It's a Blast!" was taken out of context. I'm trying to research it but I think the excerpt it was taken from was something like "This movie? It's a blast in the face of movie watchers from an unwelcome fallus!!! Shield your eyes!!!"

Sunday, I spend most of the day watching football as I feel I should on my day off… but also had fun with Dizzy & Batgirl as they made fun of how homoerotic the sport & its commentary are (it’s a fact, just about everything can easily be turned very dirty and/or disturbing) and also chatting about this & that. I also multitasked by doing some Xmas shopping (via phone) and making lunch (also via phone, Village Pizzeria). It was a pretty chill day of me watching football while they did homework.
Monday was the preview screening of “The Hobbit” (because I’m a G) and let’s just say… it was a LOT more exciting then I thought it was going to be based on the children’s tale that was one short movie and is now being extended to three epics… Peter Jackson is basically just jerking himself off with all of the amazing special effects that he can do… and for being nearly three hours long, it really flew by… like… I drank a liter of Mountain Dew right before the show & didn’t even need to go to the bathroom… I’m assuming because my body was so intensely drawn into the movie that it didn’t even process the juices in my stomach until a later time. Also, Sir Ian McKellen is a badass. Now, I just can’t wait to see the next two movies… because this one effectively teased the reason for watching the whole trilogy… and that’s Smaug the Dragon (not the air over Los Angeles). Peter Jackson & Game of Thrones know where the money is… and it’s in teasing dragons effectively (also, probably one reason why the Eragon series didn’t really take flight). Anyway, go check out this movie as soon as possible.
Wednesday night was a Work Outing with my team of coworkers… and we had a lot of fun. Our first stop was to the Boys & Girls Club to help with homework and make some awesome Christmas ornaments. That was a lot of fun… and of course the kids were mesmerized by my height. Next stop was Floragrubb to make some things for us… basically they’re called airariums… and are like little terrariums… but in ornament sizes, so super mini. Here are a few pictures…

Our dinner & white elephant gift exchange this year was at 1300 Fillmore which is one of my favorite little spots right next to Yoshi’s. We were well fed, well drank (is that right? Drinked? Drunken?) and had a grand time just relaxing outside of the work environment. What was the white elephant that I got? Well, I’d love to share… but I plan on regifting it to somebody who will actually REALLY appreciate it… so to be continued. The food was excellent though, so check out 1300 Fillmore if you’re in the area.
Thursday night, a few of my friends & I met up for a special preview of "Gangster Squad" starring Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin & Sean Penn. Now, I was very skeptical of this movie... because it looked like it was going to try to be an "LA Confidential" kind of movie... but it had a Jay-Z song in the preview... and was from the director of "Zombieland" Ruben Fleischer. Was it going to be serious? A comedy? An abortion? Who knows? But it had great potential for any of them. (By the way, fun fact: The director of LA Confidential Curtis Hanson, also directed an episode of "Greg the Bunny" so diversity isn't necessarily a bad thing) The movie is based on a book, that allegedly is inspired by true events in 1940's Los Angeles about an old school police chief (Nick Nolte) putting together a small squad of the few remaining good cops in the LAPD (back when there were a few) to take down crime kingpin Mickey Cohen (Penn). Now, the movie is almost exactly what you would expect from the preview... there are lots of guns & fighting... and actually a pretty even punch-bullet ratio... there are not going to be any Academy Awards handed out for this movie... but it's well shot, Sean Penn does a pretty convincing insane Mickey Cohen... Gosling & Brolin are who they are... Emma Stone continues to be hot... there are a few laughs, a few tears, a lot of cheesy elements... but all in all, not a horrible movie. It's been pushed back a few times from its initial release date due to all of the shootings in the news given its violent nature (& a few deleted scenes involving a movie theatre) but yeah, if that's what you're looking for, you probably won't be disappointed... except maybe for the over cheesiness at some points. Give it a gander if that's you thing.
 
Also, I got my Christmas present from Dizzy... and she's amazing... and she made me action figures. What? Made? Action figures? That's right. See... we've been working on my side project... which is a comic book... and she made a few of the characters out of other toys & her own artistic awesomeness... so behold a few creatures from... ROBOPANDA vs ZOMBIE DINOSAURS!!!
 
I know... you want to place your orders now... patience, my friends! The first issues should be coming soon... and they're well worth the wait. Unfortunately we just have REALLY busy schedules... but I will keep you posted on the release dates. In the meantime, I'm off to Utah for Christmas vacation in a few days so... HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY / CHRISTMAS / HANNUKAH / KWANZA / COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL / WHATEVER TIME!!!

No comments:

Where Should I Go Next?